LIBERAL BIAS IN ACADEMIA

Peer review can be manipulated to show a study proving something or an author has done great research.

How reliable is academic research? Not very, it seems, after noting that the Journal of Vibration and Control, a reputable academic publication, had to retract 60 different papers over the summer.

But it’s not just the clubbiness of academia that is to blame. There is such ideological uniformity in the ivory tower that no one ever questions the important assumptions behind anyone else’s research.

EBOLA ROUND-UP 10/3/14

Listening to events over the past week, especially with regard to the incident in Dallas leaves one wondering.  The news keeps changing regarding the potential threat.

President Obama said not to worry. . .it wouldn't happen here, but it has happened.  And the CDC was saying how difficult it was to spread and even Chris Matthews the liberal talk host at MSNBC went after his inconsistencies.  So where are we?

"Obama Nixed Bush-Era Quarantine Proposal":  In 2010, the Obama administration withdrew updated quarantine regulations drafted by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and proposed by the Bush administration. The new rules would have required air passengers to submit more information to airlines and strengthened the government’s authority to detain travelers suspected of carrying disease.

Liberals like to say that President Bush and Republicans generally are “science deniers.” But in this instance, Bush followed the path recommended by the Centers for Disease Control — no science deniers, they. It was Obama who elevated ideology over science thereby (to borrow the CDC’s words) denying Americans “critical” protection against “dangerous diseases spread by travelers.

"Obama Rips Bush for Being Unprepared for Avian Flu Outbreak":  But something must have been done right, according to the article. . .you don't hear about the Avian flu anymore.

Investors.com.  "Obama's Pathetic Response to Ebola Isn't Reassuring."  "The chances of an Ebola outbreak here in the United States are extremely low," President Obama said recently. But he was wrong. We wonder: Was he repeating a considered medical opinion, or just offering his own?

The Hill.  "Health Officials Clam Up about the Effort to Contain Ebola in Texas."  It sounds like the CDC and others don't know what they are doing.

George Will:  "Americans Want to Trust Government But Can't."

Vice President Joe Biden:  "The disease spreads with blinding speed"--but there are no travel restrictions.  The Veep should maybe read the Daily Mail.  With open borders and travel who knows who or what is coming in.

Cleaning up Dallas apartments without proper suits!  Government gone brain-dead.

Chris Matthews goes after Obama ("it isn't likely") and Ezekiel Emmanuel.

NBC News:  "Ibuprofen Is All It Takes to Pass Airport Screening."

GLOBAL WARMING STATS

From the WSJ.

During a fundraiser in Atlanta earlier this month, President Obama is reported to have said: "It gets you a little nervous about what is happening to global temperatures. When it is 75 degrees in Chicago in the beginning of March, you start thinking. On the other hand, I really have enjoyed nice weather."

What is happening to global temperatures in reality? The answer is: almost nothing for more than 10 years. Monthly values of the global temperature anomaly of the lower atmosphere, compiled at the University of Alabama from NASA satellite data, can be found at the website http://www.drroyspencer.com/latest-global-temperatures/. The latest (February 2012) monthly global temperature anomaly for the lower atmosphere was minus 0.12 degrees Celsius, slightly less than the average since the satellite record of temperatures began in 1979. 

BAD SCIENCE

Stanford University is going to open a center for the study of "bad science"--I thought it was only theologians who did bad science?


From the Economist:


“WHY most published research findings are false” is not, as the title of an academic paper, likely to win friends in the ivory tower. But it has certainly influenced people (including journalists at The Economist). The paper it introduced was published in 2005 by John Ioannidis, an epidemiologist who was then at the University of Ioannina, in Greece, and is now at Stanford. It exposed the ways, most notably the overinterpreting of statistical significance in studies with small sample sizes, that scientific findings can end up being irreproducible—or, as a layman might put it, wrong.

CLIMATE CHANGE IN HISTORY

A warming period may have helped the Mongols invade Russia by providing more pasture land.  Horse cavalry were critical for their invasion. 

Each Mongolian horseman in Genghis’s army is said to have had up to five horses, which provided a supply of meat as well as transport. Higher grass yields would have also caused a boom in camels, yaks, cattle, sheep and other livestock, Dr Pederson said.

“The weather may literally have supplied the Mongols with the horsepower they needed to do what they did… Before fossil fuels, grass and ingenuity were the fuels for the Mongols and the cultures around them,” he said.

At the same time this article appeared, Senate Democrats were meeting to spend all night talking about how to convince people that climate change is real today. Maybe they are worried about another Mongol invasion. But I guess the fall elections are more important than fighting climate change.

Despite that bravado, Democratic leaders made it clear they have no plans to bring a climate bill to the Senate floor this year. Indeed, the issue is so politically charged that a host of Democrats who face tough re-election fights in the fall opted to skip the session. Sens. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, Mark Pryor of Arkansas, Mark Begich of Alaska and Kay Hagan of North Carolina were among Democrats who stayed away.

All this "blether" reminds me of last year's Senator Cruz's filibuster against Obamacare.

EVOLUTIONARY & HOMOSEXUALITY

Researchers in Great Britain are struggling to find how evolution can support the homosexual belief that homosexuality is genetic.

But since gay and lesbian people have fewer children than straight people, a problem arises.

"This is a paradox from an evolutionary perspective," says Paul Vasey from the University of Lethbridge in Canada. "How can a trait like male homosexuality, which has a genetic component, persist over evolutionary time if the individuals that carry the genes associated with that trait are not reproducing?"

POLITICAL PARTIES AND SCIENCE

From the Atlantic Monthly.  "The Republican Party Isn't Really the Anti-Science Party."

. . .in his first inaugural address, Barack Obama vowed to “restore science to its rightful place.”

The president’s insinuation plays into the common perception in the media, electorate, and research community that Republicans are “anti-science.” I encountered that sentiment routinely in nearly a decade working for Republicans on Capitol Hill, and it has become more commonplace in the broader political discussion. Frequent offenders include Slate's Phil Plait, Mother Jones' Chris Mooney, HBO's Bill Maher, a host of contributors at The Huffington Post, and MSNBC's Chris Matthews.

I'm the first to admit that there are elected Republicans with a terrible understanding of science—Representative Paul Broun of Georgia, an M.D. who claims evolution and the Big Bang are “lies straight from the pit of hell” is one rather obvious example—and many more with substantial room for improvement. But Republicans, conservatives, and the religious are no more uniquely “anti-science” than any other demographic or political group. It’s just that “anti-science” has been defined using a limited set of issues that make the right wing and religious look relatively worse. (As a politically centrist atheist, this claim is not meant to be self-serving.)

GLOBAL WARMING: NOT HAPPENING?

From the BBC.  Global warming has been "at a standstill" since 1998.  Yet we have Al Gore and others preaching this as a fact.  A number of research articles are quoted.

CHINESE CREATE SUPER VIRUS

Why in the world do Chinese scientists need to create a super bird-flu virus?  Researchers can't even cure some of the current strains.  It is like biological warfare has begun.  Washington is worried about guns when maybe it should be focused on chemical and biological weapons of the future.

Senior scientists have criticised the “appalling irresponsibility” of researchers in China who have deliberately created new strains of influenza virus in a veterinary laboratory.


They warned there is a danger that the new viral strains created by mixing bird-flu virus with human influenza could escape from the laboratory to cause a global pandemic killing millions of people.

COMING ICE AGE????

I thought everyone was concerned about global warming.  Die Welt is a very credible German newspaper so when it reports on questions about global warming, it cannot be considered some right-wing conspiracy to silence Al Gore.

The right accuses global warmers as "junk-scientists."

From Forbes:  "Hide the Decline."  A global warming supporter won't debate a fellow scientist on the issue because he is an "evangelical."

Greenhouse gases protect the earth from harmful gases.

GLOBAL WARMING ACTIVIST ATTACKS EVANGELICAL

From Forbes. 

Prominent global warming activist Michael Mann threw down the gauntlet against evangelical Christians this week, calling a distinguished climate scientist and well-known Christian an “evolution denier” while refusing to participate with him in a global warming debate. In the wake of Mann’s unprovoked attack, prominent ‘evangelical’ global warming activists, who target evangelical Christians by claiming to also be evangelicals, declined to stand up for the Christian scientist against Mann’s ugly and unprovoked assault.

Roy Spencer is a senior scientist at NASA who is skeptical that humans have caused global warming.  Michael Mann attacked his religious beliefs and refused to debate the global warming issue with him.  Was he afraid he would lose the debate and as a result chose to focus on discrediting someone for his religious belief?  So much for secular open-mindedness and willingness to discuss issues they do not agree with.  And Mann ignores that the fact that some evangelicals do believe in global warming.

THE NEW EUGENICS

Where will all of the new genetic testing take us?  The eugenics movement of the early 20th century led to racism and national socialism.

DEATH PENALTY FOR GLOBAL WARMING DENIERS

"Eliminationist rhetoric" from the left--these are pretty strong words even if they have been revised.  Global warming deniers are causing the deaths of millions so they must pay the penalty.

In this article I am going to suggest that the death penalty is an appropriate punishment for influential GW deniers. But before coming to this surprising conclusion, please allow me to explain where I am coming from.

RACHEL CARSON WAS WRONG

Bad science caused people to die? Chemicals can help crops from being destroyed and thus more people can be fed.

History has proven Carson’s claims wrong. Contrary to her admonitions, a chemically caused cancer epidemic never came to pass. Researchers who identified environmental factors did not simply target trace chemical exposures as significant, but instead focused on major cancer causes such as tobacco and poor diets. In fact, people are living longer and healthier lives, cancer rates have declined even as chemical use has increased, and chemicals are not among the key causes of cancer.

GLOBAL WARMING

This article in the Daily Mail says it stopped 16 years ago.

The new data, compiled from more than 3,000 measuring points on land and sea, was issued  quietly on the internet, without any media fanfare, and, until today, it has not been reported. 

This stands in sharp contrast  to the release of the previous  figures six months ago, which went only to the end of 2010 – a very warm year. 

Ending the data then means it is possible to show a slight warming trend since 1997, but 2011 and the first eight months of 2012 were much cooler, and thus this trend is erased.

SCIENCE PLAYING GOD

What are the implications of geoengineering?  And should scientists be held responsible for their failures?

How serious is the threat of global warming? One way to figure out is to take your cues from some leading climate scientists: They have moved on. That doesn't mean they've abandoned the issue, but they are looking beyond what all agree is the most obvious solution -- decreasing the amount of carbon we spew into the atmosphere in the first place.

These scientists are beginning to look for a Plan B. There are two distinct approaches under consideration -- sucking carbon out of the atmosphere, or creating an artificial sun shield for the planet. The former, which involves reversing some of the very processes that are leading to the climate problem, is expensive. The latter just sounds scary. David Keith, a leading thinker on geoengineering, calls it "chemotherapy" for the planet. "You are repulsed?" he says. "Good. No one should like it. It's a terrible option." 

2008 DEMOCRAT PLATFORM -- WHAT WAS ACCOMPLISHED?

Interesting article on looking back at what the 2008 Democrat platform accomplished in the area of science and technology.  Some of  the highlights:

1. The platform promised more spending on research and development, but spending on these key areas have gone down.  For what it’s worth, in constant dollars total federal R&D spending peaked under the George W. Bush administration in 2007 at $154.4 billion. 
2. Sex education.  The number of abortions has remained stable for the last decade.
3. Embryonic stem cells can be used in research but support for cloning is not supported.
4. Abortion is protected.
5. The 2008 platform said America "could not drill its way to energy independence.  President Obama proudly pointed out in his acceptance speech at the Democratic Convention last week that the use of renewable energy has doubled under his administration and that thousands of Americans have jobs building wind turbines and long-lasting batteries. In addition, the U.S. has cut its imports of oil by 1 million barrels per day while opening up “millions of new acres for oil and gas exploration in the last three years, and we'll open more.”  With gas at $4 a gallon there would be a decline in imports, but it appears drilling is okay now with all of these acres being opened up to oil exploration.
6.  What about drilling? President Obama correctly claims to have opened millions of acres to drilling for hydrocarbons. But how does that compare with previous administrations? In its first three years, according to the Bureau of Land Management, the Bush administration leased 8.8 million acres for oil exploration and production, compared to 5.3 million for the Obama administration. The Clinton administration leased 11.4 million acres in its first three years.
7. New wells drilled on federal land.  The first three years of the Bush administration saw 9,276 new wells drilled, whereas under the Obama administration 9,693 wells were.
8.  The 2008 platform called for 5 million green energy jobs.This goal is not being met -- look at the unemployment statistics and firms like Solyndra which have gone belly up.And then there are t he wind turbines being built in China!
9. The 2012 Democratic Platform declares, “We are expediting the approval process to build out critical oil and gas lines essential to transporting our energy for consumers.” Really? It is true that the Obama Administration has approved the southern leg of the Keystone pipeline?
10.  No support for space exploration.
11. They are still working on climate change policies and green house gases in the 2012 platform. . .but As it happens, U.S. carbon dioxide emissions are back down to their level in 1992. This is largely not due to Obama administration green energy policies, but because fracking has produced an abundant supply of cheap natural gas.

SUPERBUGS

WAPO:  Companies are not creating drugs the will deal with future pandemics--this could be a big problem in the future.  And if some of the labs are in China, aren't we vulnerable to the Chinese government and its scientists' abilities?

Between 1945 and 1968, drug companies invented 13 new categories of antibiotics, said Allan Coukell, director of medical programs at the Pew Health Group.

Between 1968 and today, just two new categories of antibiotics have arrived.

In 2011, the Food and Drug Administration approved one new antibiotic, which fights one of the many bacteria, Clostridium difficile, causing deadly hospital-borne infections.

“What kept us out of trouble for the last 60 years is that every time drug resistance caught up to us, the pharmaceutical companies would go back to the drawing board and develop the next generation of drugs to keep us ahead of the game,” said Brad Spellberg, an infectious diseases physician in Los Angeles who heads a microbial resistance task force for the Infectious Diseases Society of America. “That’s the part of the equation that’s changed. Drug companies are no longer trying to get one step ahead.”

HUMAN GENOME

Interesting article on interbreeding between humans and "non-human" ancestors.

Geneticists have used noncoding DNA in other types of historical analyses as well. Until the past few years, most scientists doubted that human beings had ever stooped to interbreed with Neanderthals or other archaic hominids. That view has since been routed: DNA extracted from old Neanderthal bones proves that all people of European and Asian descent have a few percent of Neanderthal DNA inside them today, equivalent to the amount they inherited from each great-great-great-grandparent.

CLIMATE WARMER IN ROMAN TIMES

Tree rings show this.   I have always wondered how Romans could have lived through some of those winters in Gaul and Britain.  It also shows the earth is moving back to temperatures that once existed after millenia of cooling.

German researchers used data from tree rings – a key indicator of past climate – to claim the world has been on a ‘long-term cooling trend’ for two millennia until the global warming of the twentieth century.

And here is a related article that states that oscillations in the earth's orbit contribute more to climate change than any other factor.